Im Kyung-ho asked about the genre of his next project.
Since it wasn’t a story that needed to be kept secret, Taeha nodded immediately.
“Yes, that’s right. I’ve decided on a school drama for my next project. To be precise, it’s a school politics drama.”
Park Hee-jeong and Lee Hyun-seung.
The title of the work the two of them had collaborated on was *Fight School*.
Mobeom High was the most prestigious high school in the Republic of Korea, a place where even the student in last place could get into a university in Seoul. Famous for its state-of-the-art facilities and top-tier academic atmosphere, Mobeom High actually harbored a hideous secret.
It was a high school where only children from wealthy families received good grades and wielded absolute power. However, a young teacher was appointed to this school— a place even the principal of Mobeom High and the Minister of Education had washed their hands of.
That teacher was Lee In-woo.
And by Lee In-woo’s hand, all the ugly secrets of Mobeom High would be exposed.
That was the brief synopsis of *Fight School*.
After hearing the story from Taeha, Im Kyung-ho expressed his disappointment.
“Ah. A school drama? That’s a shame. A school drama is something I can’t direct.”
“It would be a bit difficult, wouldn’t it?”
“Yes. As you know, I’m someone who only digs one well, and that’s rom-coms. Anyway, why did you choose a school drama? Even if you say you’re writing it as a way to take a break between works, you didn’t necessarily have to choose a school drama. You’d be great at another rom-com, so why not stick with that?”
“If I did another rom-com, I think my immersion would be heavily influenced by *Your Brilliant Sparkle*. Especially from the viewers’ perspective, I felt like Jung Si-hoo would keep lingering in their minds.”
“Ah. That’s true. But wouldn’t your acting skills have been enough to cover that problem, Taeha?”
“Perhaps… but above all, this script was the most interesting. Out of all the scripts and scenarios that came my way.”
As a reminder, Taeha didn’t only use his immersion ability on Baek Seung-chul’s work. To ensure objectivity, he also used it on Park Hee-jeong and Lee Hyun-seung’s work.
Through this process, he was able to conclude that *Fight School* was the most interesting project. Even after comparing all the scripts and scenarios in front of him, there was no work better than *Fight School*.
That was why Taeha ultimately chose *Fight School*.
When he explained this, Im Kyung-ho nodded as if he understood.
“The most interesting, huh… If that’s the case, I have no choice but to step back. It’s only natural for an actor to choose a project they’re attracted to. Anyway, since you enjoyed reading it, I’m looking forward to it. When do you think it will air?”
“Since the director hasn’t been decided and the programming hasn’t been finalized yet, I think it will air around next April at the earliest. And the project…”
Taeha’s voice trailed off as he looked directly into Im Kyung-ho’s eyes. Then, with a bright smile, he continued.
“You can look forward to it. It’s incredibly fun.”
Im Kyung-ho nodded, seeing the confidence filling Taeha’s expression.
That was the end of it.
After that, nothing else of note happened at the wrap party. It was the moment the official events related to *Your Brilliant Sparkle* came to a close.
***
A few days later.
In Lee Hyun-seung and Park Hee-jeong’s studio located in Sangam-dong.
The expression on Lee Hyun-seung’s face as he sat there was not very bright. It wasn’t just him; Park Hee-jeong, who sat across from him, also looked very gloomy.
The reason their expressions were poor was because of the director and actors who joined after Taeha was cast.
“How did things turn out like this?”
The atmosphere in the studio had been great when the news of Taeha joining first broke. It was almost like a festival. It was only natural, as Taeha was the person Lee Hyun-seung and Park Hee-jeong had in mind as the protagonist from the very beginning.
Taeha wasn’t just any successful actor lately. He was currently the actor receiving the most scripts and scenarios in the Republic of Korea. He was that hot, and some were already classifying him as a top-tier actor. For that reason, Taeha had suddenly become an actor who was difficult to cast even if one wanted to.
Furthermore, Taeha even possessed the ability to write scripts himself. That meant there was no reason for him to appear in another writer’s work. If he were just a mediocre writer-actor, they might have tried, but Taeha was someone who had produced consecutive hits with *Virus* and *Your Brilliant Sparkle*.
Even looking at him only as a writer, he was one of the hottest in the country. In fact, many experts evaluated Taeha’s instincts as the best among currently active drama writers. Lee Hyun-seung and Park Hee-jeong also agreed with this assessment. Since two successful results had proven it, it was only natural.
Therefore, Lee Hyun-seung and Park Hee-jeong had no choice but to evaluate the possibility of casting Taeha as very low. But it didn’t stop there.
‘I heard Baek Seung-chul sent a casting offer to Kang Tae-ha for the solo male lead in his project.’
Of course, Lee Hyun-seung didn’t know that Baek Seung-chul had made the offer to Taeha out of spite toward him and Park Hee-jeong. Perhaps Ho-jun, who had worked with him for over eight years, would have known. But even though they had worked under Baek Seung-chul, they couldn’t fully fathom his heart.
It wasn’t that they hadn’t harbored any suspicion at all. They sometimes wondered if that was the case. But that was as far as it went. Regardless, the important fact was that with Baek Seung-chul’s casting offer, the already slim possibility of casting Taeha had vanished entirely.
However…
‘Unexpected news arrived.’
The news from CEO Han was that Taeha wanted to appear in *Fight School*. Hearing that, Lee Hyun-seung and Park Hee-jeong couldn’t help but jump for joy. Because they thought Taeha would never accept their offer, their happiness was even greater.
Until then, they thought everything would go well. It was natural since the most difficult problem had been resolved in the best possible way.
But…
‘There was an unexpected twist. And it was a twist for the worse.’
The first issue was the programming. Lee Hyun-seung and Park Hee-jeong wanted a slot on tvM the most. They didn’t prioritize public broadcast stations. They thought the content of *Fight School* was too provocative for a public station to handle.
For that reason, they had wanted a cable slot from the beginning, and with Taeha’s casting, tvM naturally became their preferred channel. ITBC wasn’t bad, but they were more attracted to tvM, which had a good relationship with Taeha. Even comparing them side-by-side, tvM was still the channel with higher recognition.
Unfortunately, tvM’s terms weren’t very good. They drew the line, saying that while they would give them a slot for Taeha’s sake, they couldn’t provide a large production budget. That meant tvM did not evaluate the project’s potential for success highly.
Salamander Studio was left in a situation where they had to cover most of the production costs themselves. It was a significant burden. Still, if they intended to handle the budget, they could. Salamander Studio had grown through steady success since *Running Time*, so it was a company with considerable financial power.
But then, tvM brought up another difficult point. They said the early drama schedule for next year was full, so they could only give them a slot in August at the earliest. August of next year was too late to ask an actor to wait. But it was also an awkward date to tell Taeha to go film another project in the meantime.
‘It might have been different if it were after October.’
So, Lee Hyun-seung and Park Hee-jeong had to grit their teeth and look for another channel. Fortunately, ITBC evaluated *Fight School* positively. They set the production budget at an understandable level and gave them the slot for next April, which they had originally hoped for.
Because of that, Lee Hyun-seung and Park Hee-jeong were able to breathe a sigh of relief, thinking things wouldn’t go completely wrong. Certainly, as an alternative, ITBC was not a bad choice. No, in some ways, it could even be a better choice than tvM.
But then, the second problem occurred. ITBC pushed Shin Seong-jin as the director for *Fight School*. Of course, ITBC asked for their understanding, saying they had no other directors available for next April except Shin Seong-jin.
However, they didn’t push Shin Seong-jin just for that reason. ITBC’s underlying intention was that if they didn’t like Shin Seong-jin, they would cancel the channel’s programming. The proof was that they didn’t listen even when Salamander Studio said they would bring in a freelance director with their own money.
Should they go to a public broadcaster? Or DDN?
After much consideration, Lee Hyun-seung and Park Hee-jeong decided to accept ITBC’s proposal. Even if they went to a public station or DDN, there was no way to know if they could bring the director they wanted. Most of all, works like *Eulyeong Girls’ High Detectives* or *Strongest Detective*, which Shin Seong-jin had filmed while acting as a B-team director, were decent. There were parts that matched the tone of *Fight School*.
However, this choice unexpectedly rolled like a snowball and created the third problem. Although her role was much smaller than Taeha’s, the female lead was still second in importance. And this female lead was cast as Han Seul-gi.
Han Seul-gi was an actor Lee Hyun-seung and Park Hee-jeong hadn’t even considered casting. It wasn’t that her recognition was so low that she couldn’t take a lead role, but she was too different from the image the two of them had in mind.
But it was difficult to expect a good female actor to attach themselves to a project written by rookie writers and directed by a rookie director. This was an unexpected problem that arose once Shin Seong-jin was confirmed as the director.
Having experienced three strokes of bad luck since Taeha’s casting, Lee Hyun-seung and Park Hee-jeong’s confidence had dropped significantly. It reached a point where they weren’t even sure if the drama could succeed if it aired like this.
“What went wrong? Should we have gone somewhere other than ITBC?”
“I don’t know. I’m not sure either.”
Fortunately, they had succeeded in casting actors they liked for the supporting roles after Han Seul-gi, but the two of them couldn’t help but exchange such conversations. Having experienced three unexpected misfortunes, much of their motivation had been chipped away. The fact that their script work had been sluggish for days was also due to these problems.
Director Shin Seong-jin and the female lead Han Seul-gi also seemed to sense that the atmosphere between the two was not good. The fact that an atmosphere of doubt began to flow among everyone involved in *Fight School* was proof of that.
And this atmosphere continued until the day of the script reading.
***
However, on the day of the first meeting, where they decided to do a simple script reading…
All doubt vanished due to one person’s performance. And doubt returned as conviction.